All things Maiden

Here’s EDDIE!

Here’s a look at the new Eddie courtesy of the latest Metal Hammer Norway.

It’s started to hit mailboxes, and there’s some cool Iron Maiden coverage in it. What do you all think of this The Book Of Souls Eddie? You’re bound to run into him at some concert somewhere next year, aren’t you?

Post navigation

38 thoughts on “Here’s EDDIE!”

Eddie is finally back! Although I don’t generally agree with Derek Riggs’s opinions, I have to admit that he was right about the cover art of The Final Frontier: That’s not Eddie! In my opinion, this new Eddie is definitely the best non-Derek one.

I definitely dig the new Eddie. TFF was a bold, wildly different direction to take him in, but I can say I much prefer this iteration of him, which stays true to his traditional design while still being unique.

Eddie rules! I like the old-school, back-to-the-roots feel. The Book of Souls album cover does resemble that of the Iron Maiden cover (as many people have commented on already), and now with a stone axe in his hand, Eddie brings the Killers album to mind as well.

I think Powerslave would be awesome song for the new Mayan Eddie to walk on stage. In light of Janick suggesting six or seven songs in his Glide Magazine interview, I think there could end up being six BoS songs in the set list going something like this hopefully:

1. If Eternity Should Fail
2. Speed of Light
3. When the River Runs Deep
4. Infinite Dreams (more realistic: Can I Play With Madness)
5. Heaven Can Wait
6. The Trooper
7. The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg
8. Sign of the Cross
9. Tears of a Clown
10. The Book of Souls
11. Powerslave (Would be an awesome song to have Mayan walk on Eddie, in my opinion)
12. Fear of the Dark
13. Iron Maiden

Yeah It’s wishful thinking on my part LOL. Mind you, after Children of the Damned wasn’t included in Eddie Rips Up The World in 2005, many would have thought it wasn’t going to appear in a set list again, then in the 2007 leg of the AMOLAD tour, there it was, so I guess you never know!

Well, the difference being that Infinite Dreams was rehearsed for the Maiden England tour but dropped. I agree somewhat with the comparison, but on the Early Days tour there where two other in-period songs of that kind in the set – Remember Tomorrow and Revelations. Infinite Dreams was replaced by out-of-period Afraid To Shoot Strangers… 😦

But I agree with Christer on Flight of Icarus. That song or Stranger In A Strange land in the set instead would saturate my pants just as much as Infinite Dreams and during the period of their reissues for 80’s material (picture vinyl discs etc), they did seem to promote both songs quite a bit on the official Facebook page!

Yeah, Stranger is a good idea. Probably also easier for Bruce to sing than Icarus. I’m seriously curious to hear how he sounds when the tour starts. But Icarus … I mean, it’s probably Maiden’s biggest ever single, certainly the only one that did any business in the US, and they haven’t played it since ’86.

> Probable: 5-6 songs from The Book of Souls
> Givens: Fear of the Dark, The Trooper, Iron Maiden, plus 1 or 2 of the following: Hallowed, Beast and Hills
> Likely: 1-3 songs from the reunion period albums

That only leaves about 3 to 5 slots in the setlist for older material, and you can bet that 2 Minutes to Midnight and/or Wrathchild will feature there too. I don’t expect anything from 1986 – 1998 to be played, save Fear of the Dark.

In his handwritten thanks in the latest Fan Club mag, Bruce did write “…been humming Heaven Can Wait in the shower a lot…” Not that this is a setlist hint, but those lyrics to Bruce’s battle is really too poignant to be ignored, isn’t it?

I didn’t know that about Bruce’s notes to the fan club, that’s cool. With that said, and having heard the album (which is great! Post an article so that we can discuss it! :)) today, here’s my very conservative setlist guess:

1. If Eternity Should Fail
2. Speed of Light
3. The Great Unknown
4. Wrathchild
5. The Trooper
6. Coming Home
7. The Book of Souls
8. Death or Glory
9. Run To The Hills
10. The Red and The Black
11. Heaven Can Wait
12. The Evil That Men Do
13. Fear of the Dark
14. Iron Maiden
Encore:
15. The Number of the Beast
16. 2 Minutes to Midnight
17. Sanctuary

While I would agree that ‘The Great Unkown’ is definitely one of the lesser tracks on ‘The Book Of Souls’, and that everyone is, of course, entitled to his or her opinion, to say that it is anywhere approaching the tedious awfulness of ‘The Angel…’ is, to say the least, a bit strong.

I completely agree. There is nothing Maiden have done since 2000 that comes close to the perfect crap that is The Angel And The Gambler. Personally, I think the chorus in The Great Unknown is really good.

Yeah I could totally live without it too. To be totally, utterly honest I’m not that bothered about The Red & The Black either, but I can already see that it will probably get played as the big, epic piece of the set. Now, “Book of Souls” I would much prefer as the epic centerpiece to the show (I think both TBoS and TRaTB will be played).

For me the red and the black would be awesome as an instrumental in the likes of “losfer words (big ora)” If it was only without the first part and right after the first bunch of solos … I think the melody line of the chorus sounds a bit too … happy especially with the keyboard’s addition .. but the instrumental part in the end is spot on and could stand as a track itself ..

I think (more hope, maybe?) that ‘The Red And… will not make it into ‘The Tour Of Souls’ (??) setlist. The title track, IMHO, would be a better choice for the live centerpiece, especially considering that the stage show/decor will more than likely be Mayan/tribal based. Also, as has been predicted/hinted at, if ‘Heaven Can Wait’ is to make an (to my mind) unwanted return, that would be one woah woah sing-a-long too many.
The almost 4 minutes that would be saved could be used for a shorter, punchier song that hasn’t been played for a long time. Hey !?!? By the time the tour rolls out ‘Flight Of Icarus’ won’t have been played for 20 years and THAT’S almost 4 minutes of the best Maiden music ever and, judging by Bruce’s singing on the new album and if it’s put in the right place in the set so that he can rest his voice a little, ‘Flight… could take the roof off!
Thoughts?

My bet is that “The Book of Souls” will come earlier, much like “Dance of Death” did on that particular tour. It gives the opportunity for Bruce to kind of “set the scene” a bit (“welcome, to The Book of Souls …” etc etc).

I think TR&TB will come later, being the longer piece it will be in the slot traditionally reserved for things like When the Wild Wind Blows, Mariner etc.

I think there is almost 100% chance it will be played. It’s the Steve penned epic on the album, clearly composed with an ear towards crowd participation …

Whoops! Bit of a QC glitch there. Of course it’s been 30 years, not 20. That’s what happens when you post on the early commute when your brain is in, best case, 1st gear. Maybe I subconsciously thought that saying I’d last seen ‘Flight…’ played live 30 YEARS AGO made me sound/feel as old as Eddie looks on the new album cover? Who knows? Whatever it was………..terrible maths!!

Shame about the ‘Tour Of Souls’ thing – I used to look forward to seeing what the band would call their new world tour; Piece/Slavery/Somewhere On….